Photos

The students/filmmakers/storytellers behind this long-running project are proud to finally announce:

"Story of a Sleeping Man" is no longer a dream, idea, project, or in-the-works piece of art. It, our entrepreneurial friends, is a finished film!!

We would like, once again, to thank all of you for investing in our dreams and helping to bring this project to life! To properly thank you, we're sending off the backer gifts promised to you here in the next few weeks, and we are cordially inviting you to the official premiere of "Story of a Sleeping Man"!

Parking is available to the north of the library, with additional street parking nearby. No need to keep it formal on a college campus, so dress is casual, and there are plenty of spots, so feel free to tell anyone you like, and bring those you really like.

Again we appreciate everything you guys have done, and want to thank you especially for sticking with us and seeing this project through. We look forward to seeing you all at the premiere, and will continue to keep you posted when more news arises. (Festival announcements are in our near future!)

First and foremost, we would like to thank each and every one of our backers for their support (and patience!) and apologize for the nearly year-long gap in updates. Without you folks, this project would never have gotten made!

It's been something of a crazy year for all of us since the last update, and between commitments to other film projects, much of our crew graduating, and, in general, leading the hectic lives of film students, post-production on Story of a Sleeping Man is unfortunately coming along at a slower pace than we had originally anticipated.

Have no fear, though, we are working our way through it! At this juncture, we are hoping to have the sound and visual effects completed by mid-to-late April, and are looking forward to a release by May 2013.

We wish we could report more to you all at this time, but please rest assured that you'll be the first to know all of the news as it becomes available. Again, we apologize for the ups and downs while we wait for things to continue moving in one solid direction.

As mentioned in previous updates, we are seeking an appropriate venue in which to screen the film at the premiere, and are also continuing our search for appropriate vendors and materials to help us create and deliver the reward packages to our backers.

Again, we sincerely appreciate all of you bearing with us during all of this, and promise it will all pay off soon!

Well folks, as some hippie probably said at some point in time, “What
a long, strange trip it’s been.” As of about 4:00 p.m. on April Fool’s
Day of 2012, we are happy, proud, honored, humbled and tickled pink
(didn’t even have to use a thesaurus) to announce that principal
photography for Story of a Sleeping Man is officially WRAPPED!!!

It’s been quite a long journey these past 8 months, but with a
versatile, dedicated crew, the most hands-on, passionate and talented
producers around, and a cast that makes the ensemble from 12 Angry Men look like the cast of Drive Angry, production for Story of a Sleeping Man is right on schedule!

Last Sunday saw the shooting of the “Zombie scene”, which was the
last scene to be shot for the film. I realize that it’s impossible to
bring up zombies without giving you all a quick look, so check out our production blog for some awesome behind-the-scenes pictures and videos.

All in all, we would like to sincerely thank everybody involved in the
funding, production and execution of this film. Without your support,
our love of filmmaking and desire to have it be seen would probably go
unfulfilled. We’re overjoyed to have the opportunity to share our work
and vision with you all!

More updates will be posted as we move through our post-production
schedule and begin submitting to festivals, so be sure to keep up with
us by following us on Twitter @SleepingManSIU for live updates!

For now, though, we’ll leave you with this: behind-the-scenes footage of Aaron Mager, Director of Story of a Sleeping Man, running (albeit, masculinely) from our zombie.

After 40 nail-biting days and sleepless nights, we are happy to announce that the Kickstarter campaign for Story of a Sleeping Man has been successfully funded!
We'd like to express an enormous amount of thanks to all of our backers who contributed to help us this goal; we couldn't have done it without your support!

Thanks to:

Russell & Christine Brightwell

Susie Shircliff

Jessica Lynn

Suchon
Caitlyn

Nancy Gerstein

Michael Kelley

Sue Kelley

Zoe Sjogerman

Chuck Gliniecki

Martha M. Wittbrodt

Brian Vickers

Seth

Katie Crawford

Jim Kelley

Jean Distler

Janet Jou

Chris and Rick Distler

Patti Filipiak

Autumn Brightwell

Lucille Distler

SOIL Productions

Elizabeth A. Bohn

D.j. Moloney

Julie Daniels

Jim and Joan Distler

Nelda Brightwell

Devon
Kathy & Bob Zambruski

Nick Ruholl

John Kelley

Mary Chambers-Foltman

Kathy Mager

Julie Pohlman

John Guberud

Daniel Winterhalter

Jay Crain

Marsha Walker

Mary Pollard

Shirley Davidsmeyer

Jim and Kim Davis

Charline Chambers

Lester and Gloria McSchooler

Ruben & Rita Guzman

Dave and Neva Stokes

Josh Lilly

Gina Copeland

Ben Brightwell

Your generous contributions will allow us to complete and release this film in the way we originally intended. We will be in touch with all of you very soon!

As we near the final days of production this month, we will continue to keep you all up-to-date on the last shoots for Story of a Sleeping Man. We are expecting to go into post production during the beginning of April, and will have a completed film by May!

Thank you all once again for support. Want to show off to your friends, family and co-workers? Head over to the Backers section on our production blog and see your name in print (kind of!)!

Fear, Loathing and DSLR Cameras In Cairo

If there’s one thing to be said about Friday’s shoot in Cairo, IL,
it’s that we learned what the lesson that all of our favorite childhood
movies from the 90′s have tried to teach us: sometimes, a rag-tag team
of misfits can work together against all odds to accomplish something
awesome.

Despite tornado and thunderstorm warnings, a power outage, and
incredibly windy weather, we are proud to report that Friday’s shoot
went off without a hitch. Actually, there were a lot of hitches. I don’t
know why I said that. The point is, the majority of our war scenes are
filmed and look fantastic.

This was one of the biggest, dirtiest, fake blood-shooting-est shoots
of the film so far, and to be perfectly honest, we all had a blast.

While leaving Carbondale, IL in the morning, we knew that there was a
40% chance of rain for Cairo, IL, our destination and location for our
battle scenes. What we didn’t realize was that conditions in Southern
Illinois would be perfect for thunderstorms and
tornadoes–simultaneously.

After arriving on set, rehearsing and blocking scenes and prepping
our actors, we began shooting the first scene. 20 minutes afterward, we
got word that there was a tornado warning issued for Cairo. Regardless,
we kept on shooting, though cautiously, knowing that the recent disaster
in Harrisburg, IL occurred in weather conditions similar to the ones we
were in.

The crew got a few scenes shot just as it was reported that a tornado
was seen in Makanda, IL, about 30 miles away from us. One power outage
and a warning siren later, we decided to put filming on hiatus for the
time being.

Then, the weather cleared up almost hilariously: the clouds all but
disappeared and the sun came out for long enough to allow us to shoot
our remaining scenes. It was a push, but we shot the majority of our
scenes and managed to clean up the equipment just before we were kicked
out at 5 p.m.

Wish you could’ve been there with us? Check out the gallery on our production blog to get a look at the goings-on.

For all the snags, we successfully got another major group of scenes
shot and in the can. This was an incredibly intense day of shooting, and
our cast and crew performed exceptionally. We are all really starting
to fall into and embrace our crew roles, and each shoot seems to be a
vast improvement on the last one.

Though we’re still on pace to complete the movie by the end of May, to paraphrase Bugs Bunny in Space Jam, “We need your help!”

There are now 5 days left on our Kickstarter
campaign, and we are only $1,100 shy of our goal. Now that time
is bearing down on us, we humbly ask our fans and supporters to please
(please) do us a favor and send our Kickstarter page to anyone (or everyone) you know that would be interested in helping us. Direct them to our Twitter feed (featuring live, on-set tweets!), Facebook page and photo galleries, etc; we’re in this for the long haul now.

Wondering exactly how much craziness went into shooting on
Friday? Check out the video below to see our crew working in dangerously
high winds to get the shot we needed. Just in case you have any doubts
about our work ethic.

Thanks once again to everybody that’s been helping us get this
project off the ground, and stay tuned for even more updates as we move
through our production schedule!